The Defeated Dragon Chapter 32

32 – Brig Sailboats in the Sea

The city was not worth looking forward to. Only the castle was worth looking forward to as the aristocrats payed particular attention to sanitation. There were bathrooms and toilets, with servants moving the excrements and refuse outside the castle.

Because no one knew of their usage as fertilizer, the feces were randomly discarded in the wild and then naturally weathered.

Effective usage of feces as fertilizer could reduce the dependence on sprites. But due to the sprites' natural ability to improve crops, the relience on sprite could only be reduced though.

With the brig sailboats traveling along the azure sea, the Coral City had gradually disappeared from view and the towering peak of the Tulip Castle had also started to sink below the sea level.

This seemingly indicated that this world was also spherical.

Liszt would occasionally think about the circ.u.mstances of the world he had transmigrated into, yet to no avail because of a lack of information.

“Sir, what are you looking at?” Marcus walked up to him.

“At the sea, at this azure sea concealing countless treasures.”

“I grew up at the seaside, but I do not have such wonderful dreams towards the sea. There are sea monsters in the sea, and maybe some fish. However, there are also fish in rivers and lakes, and it is not dangerous there. On the continent, there is a limitless reserve of riches, with glorious knights and aristocrats vying over it.”

The Sapphire Grand Duchy was an archipelago state, but it had never given up on its conquest of the continent, every few years organizing an order of knights to go vie over the continent's minerals.

Creating batches after batches of aristocrats.

The Tulip Family had also risen to power in that place. Marcus dreamt of going to the continent to fight, to gain merit and to be conferred the t.i.tle of chevalier.

Now that he had set his mind on serving Liszt, he naturally tried to influence Liszt from time to time.

Liszt still looked at the deep sea, not caring about ‘the continent's riches' speech. The battlefield was full of danger, why would he want to go there?! Quietly pa.s.sing his time as a lord in the countryside while cultivating the fields and performing other tasks; it was much better to do things steadily, taking one step at a time. If talking strictly in terms of him being a transmigrator, he did not think that he could stand out above the aboriginals, but with the help from the smoke missions, him becoming strong was just a matter of course.

As for what the smoke missions were, he was bound to unravel this mystery one day.

“Teacher Marcus, I heard that there are large uninhabited and not yet exploited islands outside the grand duchy's archipelago.”

“Right. After chatting with some old sailors, I was informed that there are other large islands outside the archipelago. However, those islands are located deep in the sea. With the many submerged reefs and the frequent storms, it is difficult to access those islands. They have no development value.”

“Perhaps.”

Liszt could not deny it.

Supposedly, as long as deep sea fis.h.i.+ng was developed, then the veil over the sea's riches would be lifted by a bit. At that time, the contest over islands might not be inferior to that over the continent.

It was currently still impossible to pull of. He was just the lord of a small countryside town. Therefore, before anything else, he had to first expand and develop.

“Raise the sails! Sail ahead!”

“Raise the sails! Sail ahead!”

The crew's roars were heard from below the mast. Currently, the wind was rising from the south and blowing from the stern, creating rustling noises. The captain ordered the sailors to raise the sails to get greater windforce.

The emergence of sailboats allowed humans to enter deeper into the sea. The Sapphire Grand Duchy's fleet was comprised of sailboats. However, they were brig sailboats. Schooner sailboats had yet to emerge. The advantage of brig sailboats was that they were very fast during tailwind, the disadvantage was that they had practically no effect during headwind and paddles had to be used.

There was currently tailwind. With the sails risen, the fleet took a triangular formation on the sea. It looked magnificent.

They set off in the morning and arrived at the Red Crab Island in the evening.

The Red Crab Island was ten times bigger than the Coral Island. The Longtaro Castle was not at the seaside, but was halfway up a mountain in the middle of the island. Therefore, after getting off the boat, Liszt and the others had to stay in the city near the wharf, the Sea Crab City, overnight. Next, they would have to take a carriage to the Longtaro Castle, arriving on the third day.

There were still no pigeons trained to deliver letters. Also, the thick bast paper was presumably to heavy for pigeons to carry.

However, because knights had been sent beforehand to deliver a letter saying that the Tulip Family's younger generation was coming to pay a visit in the near future, the Longtaro Castle had arranged a villa near the Sea Crab City, with servants specially waiting for Liszt and his party. Once they arrived, they were immediately arranged to stay in the villa. They did not have to stay in the filthy city.

After dinner, Liszt took a bath, and then lay down on a bed.

He was slightly seasick.

In his birthplace, he was accustomed to airplanes and trains, yet he was not used to s.h.i.+ps. Fortunately, his predecessor was an islander with some seasickness resistance, which was why he could somewhat overcome it and had not become fully seasick.

“As an islander, to become seasick, Liszt, I cannot help but to say that you made the Tulip Family loose face. I thought that you have matured, but unexpectedly, you are still so unreliable. This reminds me of your previous cowardly behavior. You are indeed that stupid little brother of mine.” Not knowing when, Lvera had appeared inside Liszt's room.

She had not knocked on the door.

Liszt was startled. He had been observing the smoke Serpentines. He often checked whether there were any changes.

But soon, he settled down. Lvera did not seem to see the smoke Serpentines. Only Liszt could see the smoke Serpentines. Therefore, there was no need to fear being exposed.

“You forgot to knock on the door.”

“I did not knock? It is not of importance.” Lvera crossed her arms in front of her chest as she watched Liszt, showing her disdain.

“It is very important to me. You do not respect my privacy. Also, doing so is not gentlewomanly. Aristocrats are fond of gentlewomen, dear sister.”

“I do not want to change myself to carry favor with aristocrats! Besides, Liszt, since when do I need you to give me advice? I would be teachimg you a good lesson were we not on the Red Crab Island to let you understand that advancing to Earth Knight is nothing special!”

Liszt was bullied by Lvera from an early age.

He believed that Lvera's jealousy of his appearance, which was beautiful enough to make the majority of women feel ashamed, was the root of this behavior!

“Have you just come to tell me that I am still very weak?”

“I just wanted to see that disgraceful appearance of you being seasick.”

“Now that you have already seen it, would you please leave?”

Lvera gave him a look, then turned and left. Liszt got up and locked the door. The other was nineteen years old, still a girl, her behavior unpredictable.

Liszt did not care too much. According to his memory, Lvera was an offhand, or rather, a rash and frivolous person.

The Count often felt like he and Lvera should exchange tempers.

One was more elegant than a girl, the other was more boisterous than a boy.

Liszt lay down again. As he did not feel sleepy, his thoughts wandered to some boring stuff: “My predecessor has come to the Longtaro Castle five months ago for the New Year Festival. At that time, Marquis Merlin was not on the island, still holding the post of commander of the court fleet. It has been around four to five years since he had last seen him.”

Given that aristocrats practiced monogamy, the aristocratic families were often not too thriving.

Marquis Merlin had one son and two daughters. The youngest daughter, Melissa, was deceased, while the oldest daughter, Melinda, was married off to a follower of the Marquis, Viscount of Longwall Island, Laurent Pinecone. There was only one heir, his eldest child and son, Messil Longtaro, who only had a son, Meopal.

“Cousin Meopal… seems to be almost twenty five years old, and still not married? Apparently, he is in pursuit of the Sapphire Grand Duke' daughter? The princess of this little state, reportedly, is promiscuous.”

Grand duchies were ancillary states of empires or a kingdoms, with the t.i.tle of their supreme rulers being that of grand dukes. In a strict sense, a grand duke was not a king, and his daughter could not be called a princess. Moreover, because of his inability to become a dragon knight, the newly ascended Sapphire Grand Duke had his t.i.tle already lowered to that of a duke.

In the aristocratic system, infante, grand duke, and duke were ranks of aristocratic t.i.tles, but only dragon knights could be conferred the t.i.tles of infante or grand duke. Otherwise, only the t.i.tle of duke could be conferred.

However, rules were meant to be broken. Inside the Sapphire Grand Duchy, the aristocrats called their ruler grand duke. Naturally, his daughter would also be treated as a princess and sought after as such.

Liszt had a wicked thought: “If by chance Meopal were to take the princes as his wife, then it would be quite possible their children turning out not be his… Hehe.”